Frantic search continues amid aftershocks in Nepal
KATHMANDU, Nepal -- Rescuers were still digging methodically through the rubble Monday in Nepal's battered capital city, hoping to find survivors, but expecting to find many more bodies.
The ground began to heave in Nepal at about midday on Saturday - the violent tremors captured on security camera video at a hotel.
CBS News correspondent Holly Williams says, in just a few minutes, the devastating quake razed buildings to the ground, shattered roads and claimed more than 4,000 lives, according to police.
The wounded, some with head and spine injuries, poured into Nepal's hospitals. Many of those facilities were already poorly equipped for a disaster like this, and aftershocks and damaged buildings drove both doctors and patients into open areas outside, where treatment was even more challenging.
In the ancient heart of Nepal's capital, several-centuries-old Hindu temples were levelled.
Williams found a search team working furiously Monday morning, digging through the rubble with shovels and even their bare hands. Most of them, including Balram Gautm, were volunteers hoping to find anyone still alive under the crushed rock and cement.
"Chances are very slim," admitted Gautm, "but we should do what we can do. That's all we are doing here."
A teenage girl was found alive by another rescue team earlier Monday in Kathmandu. They used crowbars to free her from the debris.
The distraught nation has already begun to cremate its dead, with families lighting Hindu funeral pyres for their loved ones.
And still the aftershocks kept coming; each one jolting a nation already on edge.
Thousands of people have been sleeping on the streets -- not because their homes were destroyed, but because they fear being indoors should another powerful tremor shake buildings to their foundations.
Amisha Tamang set up camp with 20 of her family members in Kathmandu. She described what it was like when the earthquake hit.
"We were thinking, 'it's our last moment. We won't be alive and no one will be alive.'"
Sunday night brought more strong aftershocks. As long as they continue, people will stay on the streets, too frightened to return home.